A new arrival
by Eirlys1
Summary: Allella Lay is joining during the fifth year, the trio grow to trust her, but what's her past and how will she change their futures. Also, her relationship with a certain Draco Malfoy seems to confuse everyone. Do they hate each other or in a strange way do they need each other. From book 5 to 7. T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling**

The beginning of a new year usually filled Harry with excitement to be away from the Dursley's and back where he felt he belonged. However, this year was different. Voldemort was back. Nothing could chase this from his mind. The order of the phoenix had helped ease his worries a little; they had shown him what Voldemort was doing and kept his faith up. But, then there was this new mystery. They had been talking about something hidden. He had a feeling this year wasn't going to be as simple as he would have liked. Just as he was going through all this in his mind, Professor McGonagall threw open the doors of the Great Hall and led the group of trembling, nervous first years through the middle of the four tables. Harry managed to forget his worries for a bit and focused on the sorting hats song. It was interesting this year. Never before had the hat tried to give advice. Unity it asked for. Ron's face looked as though he was about to throw up at the thought of having to be friends with the Slytherins. This look could be seen on most of the school's faces by the end of the song and there was a slightly less than usual smattering of polite applause. The sorting began. It went along quite smoothly but then just as McGonagall lifted the hat and stool to move it away, Dumbledore stood up.

"Not quite yet, Professor McGonagall. We haven't quite finished. There is still one more student waiting to be sorted", he said. The look of surprise flickered on McGonagall's face before she regained her composure and sat the stool back on the ground. Dumbledore continued, this time addressing the entire school, "This student will be starting in the fifth year, she has had no schooling up until now and I expect every one of you to welcome her into the year and to whatever house she will be put in. She may be behind in classes and I expect you all to make extra effort to help her catch up. There will also be no questioning as to her unusual circumstances and no one is to ask her about her time before Hogwarts and I'm sure she would appreciate to be allowed to move on and would prefer not to remember. Thank you". He sat down and waved his hand at the door. The entire hall turned quickly to face the opening doors. Disappointment shone on a number of faces as they saw the girl who was standing there. She was entirely unimpressive. She was short and had wavy light brown hair down to the middle of her back. She was pretty but not extraordinarily so. Then she began to walk through the hall and everyone sat up a little more. She walked with such grace and superiority. Her hair bounced against the small of her back and seemed to shimmer. Her eyes were fixed entirely on Professor Dumbledore who she gave a small smile. Everything about her oozed confidence and brilliance. Her eyes were different. They were grey and dark as though something was hidden inside.

She glided up the steps to the stool and sat down. McGonagall was still in slight shock but after a moment slowly lowered the hat onto her head. Everyone in the hall was silent waiting for the hat's verdict. They kept waiting; the time went on and on. A murmur started as students muttered to each other about what was happening. Then suddenly, the hat widened at the brim and shouted out to the hall, "Gryffindor!"

The applause started around the hall, louder from the three other tables as though they were relieved that she had not been put with them. She stood up and walked slowly back down the stairs to the Gryffindor table. She walked up to Harry and Hermione and whispered sweetly to them,

"Do you mind if I sit here, you're fifth years too right?"

"Of course not", Hermione muttered not knowing quite what to say to her or how to act around her yet. She moved up to allow her room between her and Harry.

"My name's Allella, what's yours?" she asked them.

"I'm Harry and this is Ron and Hermione" said Harry speaking up as he could see Ron and Hermione weren't quite sure about her yet. Dumbledore had told them to welcome her and even though he hadn't spoken to him all summer and had avoided him during the trial, he still deserved Harry's respect and Harry knew that he would always continue to do what Dumbledore asked of him, wherever it took him. He trusted no man more. Allella opened her mouth to continue the conversation but just then food appeared on the plates in front of them. Her mouth dropped open.

"This is all for us?" she asked.

"I've never seen this much food before, I don't normally have much to eat at home"

Harry held in the temptation to ask her more about her home life and simply said "Yeah I know, I remember how I felt during my first feast here." They ate quickly and Allella continued to ask questions throughout:

"What's that, What's a ghost, How many are there, Are they friendly, Why does the ceiling look like the sky, How long have you been at Hogwarts, What are lessons like, What are the houses like, Why do you think the hat spent so long deciding where I should go?" The three friends tried to answer these as best as they could, feeling more at ease all the time. She just seemed normal. It was probably just that she had come to the school during fifth year that everyone was a bit wary of her in the beginning. She seemed completely normal.

Dumbledore stood up to say a few words. Halfway through his speech however, another woman stood up, one who had not yet been noticed by a number of people in the hall. She was short and wearing nothing but bubblegum pink. She waddled to the front of the table and thanked Dumbledore for welcoming everybody. She then began to speak. Students pretended to listen as she gabbled on about some ministry rubbish and applauded politely when she had finished before standing up and walking off to their dormitories. Hermione however, had paid full attention to everything that was being said and was murmuring to Harry and Ron about what it could all have meant. Allella ran after them,

"Sorry, I don't know where I'm going could you show me?"

"Ron, that reminds me, we've got to show the first years where to go" Hermione said and she and Ron ran off.

"I'll show you, come on" said Harry and together they walked out of the great hall towards the Gryffindor common room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling**

**A/N: In case anyone was wondering Allella is pronounced (A-lay-luh), it is a real name, I heard it when I was on holiday in Scandinavia. Can't remember exactly which country now though. Sorry for such a short chapter.**

Allella sat by the window in her dormitory. She looked out into the darkness surrounding Hogwarts seeing just her reflection in the glass. She threw the window open and gazed out longingly at the forbidden forest, smiling a little to herself even as a tear rolled down her cheek. Hermione entered quietly through the door behind her and immediately noticing something was wrong came and sat beside her at the window.

"I'm sorry, I'm being stupid, I'm happy to be here I've just been so used to living alone now, it's hard to adjust" said Allella after a while.

"It's ok, I remember how daunting it was when I first came here. I'm muggleborn so I had no idea about magic before I came here, but everyone gets used to it ... I know I shouldn't ask but why were you living alone?"

"Sorry, it's hard for me to trust, I haven't had much practice. Maybe one day I'll be able to tell you my past but I don't think I'm ready yet. People look at me as though I'm nothing when I'm just standing there, but when I start walking they sit up and take note. I guess that's because it's impossible to go through what I have without developing a thick skin. I have to appear strong and confident or I'll get hurt. I've learnt that the hard way. I don't want to be stared at but I can't be a nobody, a disposable girl, they never last long do they?"

"Nobody's going to hurt you here, you know, I don't know what's happened to you, but it's over now, you can trust people"

"I'll give it a shot" said Allella, as she stood up and walked over to her bed. They changed into their pyjamas in silence. Just before they fell asleep, Hermione heard a whispered thank you and smiled to herself as she closed her eyes. She was going to help her; she would teach her that she didn't have to be so scared of everything.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling**

Allella came down to the common room early the next morning and sat in an armchair by the fire waiting for someone else to turn up to show her the way back to the great hall. She heard shouting from the top of the girls staircase and a very annoyed looking Hermione came around the corner soon after. She came and sat next to Allella and gave her a look which seemed to say, 'don't ask'. Harry and Ron weren't much longer and their mood didn't seem to be much improved from Hermione's. They started in a discussion about a boy called Seamus and a girl called Lavender. They seemed to have something against Harry.

"Sorry, but could someone explain to me what's going on? People were giving us weird looks yesterday when you showed me the way to dormitory. I thought it was me because I'm new. But I don't think it was. What's going on Harry? Why are people always talking about you?" said Allella suddenly bursting into their conversation.

"You really don't know?" asked Harry slowly.

"No, I told you yesterday I literally know nothing about this world, is there something I should know about you?"

"I guess there is, this is going to be a long story, let's make our way down to the great hall and I'll start on the way."

They all got up to go down and Harry began his story. Hermione and Ron went ahead so Harry could tell Allella everything privately. She listened without interrupting and by the time they got to the great hall he'd already started the graveyard story. They finished just as they were sitting down. Allella didn't speak for a bit and they sat in silence as she tried to take it all in.

"I guess there are people who've had worse luck than me then" she answered after a while. "I can't believe you did all that, it's amazing. So, what you were talking about earlier, does that mean that people don't believe you about Voldemort being back?"

"No, the ministry aren't too keen on the idea, so I guess they've decided to ignore it."

"What a great plan, I'm sure that'll make him go away" muttered Allella sarcastically.

Hermione spotted Professor McGonagall headed their way handing out timetables. Ron groaned when he saw what was timetabled for today.

"What've you got Al?" said Harry, looking over her shoulder.

She jumped at the term and grinned slightly, thinking maybe she'd actually made friends for the first time and then remembered she actually had to answer him,

"Um, I think I have the same as you two", looking over at Harry and Ron's timetables to check.

"That's good we can show you where to go" Ron said encouragingly to her as he saw that she looked slightly nervous.

"What am I meant to do though, I've never been taught magic before I'll be on the same level as the first years not the fifth years? McGonagall told me that the teachers had been informed that I might be a bit behind but I'm not a bit behind I haven't even started. Also did I hear your brothers talking about OWLs? Are they some sort of tests because I'm really not going to be ready for those?"

"Don't worry about it, you can't help it if you've never been to school before and anyway you don't really need to know anything for either Divination or History of Magic and we've got both of them today and I'm sure you'll get some extra help or something" said Ron uncertainly, not really sure if he was helping or not.

"Thanks Ron, I guess we'd better go, I don't want to be late as well"

They all got up and went off to their first lesson, History of Magic.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling**

The first lesson of the day had gone as well as possible, history of magic was taught by a ghost who seemed to have forgotten that there was actually anyone else in the classroom. Allella tried to make notes to begin with but couldn't keep up and in the end she just followed everyone else's example by ignoring him. Hermione just shook her head when she saw that she'd given up but didn't seem to have really expected any more.

The bell for the end of the lesson was just enough to wake the majority of people up and after Ron was poked awake, they all mooched off to their next class.

On their way to potions, a girl stopped Harry and tried talking to him. Hermione and Allella tried to edge away and give him some space while also trying hard not to laugh at how red his face had gone. However, Ron didn't seem to have got that particular memo and started attacking her about some stupid badge she was wearing. She walked away in a bit of a huff and Hermione went crazy at Ron. They walked off together in the direction of the dungeons leaving Harry and Allella to follow along behind them.

"Soooooo, who was that?" asked Allella.

"What, nobody, well her name's Cho, but she's not anyone interesting or important or anything" stuttered Harry.

"If you say so" giggled Allella.

"Come on Ali, was I really that obvious"

"I have never seen someone with a face quite as red as yours, but don't worry I'm pretty sure it's at least slightly mutual"

She ran off to catch up with Hermione and Ron and left Harry behind even redder than before. As she rounded the corner however, she ran straight into somebody. They both crashed to the ground and their books flew everywhere.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you" said Allella as she was searching around for all her stuff.

"Well, maybe you should look where you're going next time, you idiot, I could have been seriously hurt" shouted the boy. Allella jumped up in anger and looking down at the boy still grabbing all his books replied,

"Well maybe you should take your own advice, it takes two to make an accident, you know I bet you think you run this school. Well here's a newsflash for you, you don't. I don't know who you think you are, but you are as just as much a nobody as everyone else in this school, including me. So next time you want to bite someone's head off, why don't you stop and think that maybe when you're older you're going to need that person, or you'll be working with them and need their help. Don't burn all your bridges now by acting like you own us."

"Um, Ali..." Harry said as he grabbed her arm. He'd caught up with her and had watched the whole thing with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Oh, Potter, what a surprise that you know this freak, you don't know me new girl and you don't know how this school works. I just suggest you stay away from me" sneered the boy.

"Only if you stay away from me" replied Allella shoving into the boy so he tripped again as she walked past. She walked quickly down the corridor with Harry having to run to keep up. When she rounded the corner, she turned to Harry and whispered,

"Who the hell was that?"

"That was Draco Malfoy; he's the son of a man who has the minister in his back pocket. His dad's also a death eater, I saw him that night in the graveyard. Just ignore him, he's not worth the trouble."

"Well if he thinks I'm just going to lie down and take it like the rest of this school..."

"I know, but come on, we don't want to be late for potions, Snape's the teacher and also the head of Slytherin house. He'll kill us."

"I haven't been here for particularly long, but I'm not getting the best impression of Slytherin house at the moment."

"For some reason I don't think that this lesson is going to improve your opinions particularly much."

They got to the dungeon just in time for the door to be opening and they walked in and grabbed two cauldrons next to Ron and Hermione.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling**

Snape walked into the classroom and the door slammed shut behind him with a flick of his wand. He began by introducing the class to the idea of the OWLs. A lot of the class chose to look down at their feet whilst he addressed them in case he caught their eyes.

"Ah, Miss Lay, of course" he said when his eyes came at last to Allella standing nervously at the back of the classroom.

"I understand this is your first year at a wizarding school of any kind. You will be having extra lessons with me and I believe a number of teachers in order for you to scrape some kind of success this summer. I only hope you pay attention and learn a bit quicker than the rest of this lot."

"Yes sir."

"Stay back at the end of the lesson and we will discuss when you are free for extra lessons".

"Yes sir."

"Now for today's lesson, the Draught of Peace, many of you will find this beyond your limited capabilities, however, it is a potion that will often be found in your Ordinary Wizarding Level and therefore, I must suffer the displeasure of watching you fail."

"Miss Lay, I suggest you stay close to Granger, she has a reputation for managing to fix other students messes especially when it was not particularly requested of her."

Hermione turned red at this and stared and the ground while Allella muttered a small 'yes sir' again.

"The instructions are on the board, you may begin"

Allella stared at the board for a couple of minutes trying to understand it all before she realised everyone else had started. Maybe, she thought, she should just focus on one line at a time. I mean, how different could it be from cooking or baking a cake. Just follow all the instructions exactly and it couldn't go wrong. The only real problem was when she didn't know what everything was. So she just stuck to Snape's recommendation and tried to copy Hermione as much as possible. She found she quite enjoyed it; it was very similar to baking except she thought it probably wasn't a good idea to taste it halfway through.

With ten minutes to go, Snape told them that a silver vapour should be rising from the potion. Allella looked around and saw a perfect sample in Hermione's effort, however, the rest of the class seemed to have a variety of different things rising from theirs. Harry's was giving off a grey smoke, Ron's was giving off green sparks and Neville's which just seemed to have set in stone at the bottom of his cauldron. She was amazed when she looked down at her own to see there was a slight mist starting to appear. It wasn't quite Hermione's standard, it didn't look perfect, but it certainly wasn't the worst in the room. Snape swept past Hermione, ignoring her attempt and then looked down at Allella's. Well, Miss Lay, maybe you won't be the worst in my class after all. Potter! Weasley! I would like to congratulate on your potions, I see you have managed to create a disaster even worse than usual. You have actually done worse than someone who has never attempted potions before.

Snape then proceeded to lecture Harry on everything he had done wrong in his potion before vanishing the entire mixture and telling him it was worthless. Draco Malfoy laughed from the opposite side of the classroom at this which earned him such a glare from Allella that he actually stopped and shrunk back a bit before remembering himself and pulling himself up in his chair to face her with a smirk.

As Snape, read out the homework to them and they all brought him up a sample for testing, they all packed away and made to leave. Allella then remembered that she was meant to wait behind and Hermione said she'd wait outside so he could show her the way back to the great hall.

She waited at the back of the classroom until the last person had shuffled out before walking up to Snape and waiting.

"Miss Lay, have you ever attempted any potions before?"

"Well, I'm not really sure, I think I have, but at the time I wasn't told what it was. I didn't know anything about magic at the time. I was five."

"In that case, I will give you extra lessons so that you can catch up on the last few years but I do not think they will need to happen for the entire year, you seem to understand the art very well."

"To be honest sir, I just followed the instructions, I didn't know I was doing, I just did what I was told, and I pretended I was just making a cake or something."

"Be that as it is, you are still very gifted, I hope you will be able to continue this success. Wednesday evenings, you will come to me after dinner; meet me in the smaller potions lab. You can go."

Allella made to leave the classroom and just as she got to the door, Snape added,

"Miss Lay, if you could try to assist Potter and Weasley, it would be much appreciated, I wouldn't bother with Longbottom, I feel there is probably no hope for that boy. Thank you."

"Yes sir", but he'd already left the classroom from the door behind his desk. Allella smiled to herself and went to catch up with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry was in a bad mood and had already left for the great hall with Ron, so she walked back slowly with Hermione, trying to give Harry time to calm down before they got there.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling**

The next lesson was divination; it turned out to be one of the most pointless hours of Allella's life.

"I thought we were actually going to learn how to see the future."

"Yeah, well interpreting dreams is a part of that. If we do it correctly we can foresee exactly what is to come in our lives" replied Parvati, one of the girls from her dormitory. By the end of the lesson they were all more than ready to leave the hot room and go back to a bit more normality. However, Umbridge was the next teacher on the list and nobody quite knew what to expect from her.

They arrived and were given the orders just to sit there and read from the book. Allella couldn't help but think they could do this on their own out of lessons and it might be slightly more useful to actually practice some of it. From the looks of the other students in the class, the feeling was mutual. However, she also felt slight relief that she wouldn't have to embarrass herself by not being able to do any of the magic.

It was a while before she and the rest of the class noticed that Hermione had her hand in the air. Allella was just wondering how strong her arm must be to be able to hold it up for over ten minutes without wavering at all before Professor Umbridge 'noticed' her.

The next few minutes consisted of various members of the class shouting at Professor Umbridge about the fact that she wasn't planning to teach them how to perform the spells.

Eventually Harry stood up and started yelling at her about Voldemort and Cedric and how she needed to be protecting them. Umbridge's voice changed then. It became sweet and sickly and a lot more dangerous. Harry took a note from her and left the classroom.

"Right, now that he has gone, I hope we can all get on with today's task. Chapter 1, please children."

There were low levels of muttering throughout the classroom before everyone decided it was better not to argue with her anymore and to just do as they were told.

In the common room that night, the whole atmosphere was tense as they sat down to do their homework. There were still murmurings following Harry around and he seemed to get more and more agitated as the evening went on. Fred and George finally brought the evening to an end when they started testing some sweets on the first years. Hermione stopped them before stalking off up to her dormitory leaving behind some hat shaped balls of wool to try and set some house elves free.

Allella was so tired she didn't even bother trying to figure any of it out before following Hermione upstairs and collapsing on her bed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling**

The next day, Allella's hopes of everything being slightly easier than she had expected were gone. Double Charms consisted of Professor Flitwick explaining the importance of their OWLs then the summoning charm. Most people in the class knew what they were doing and by halfway through had got it perfected. Allella, on the other hand, as hard as she tried, just didn't have a clue what she was doing. Harry, Ron and Hermione tried to help her but it seemed pointing her wand at something and saying the words wasn't enough. After this Professor Flitwick tried his best to explain to her the basics of charmwork but he couldn't really afford to spend the whole lesson solely on her.

So, at the end of the lesson, she waited behind and he arranged evening lessons with her in the hope that she would be able to catch up to the rest of the class.

"How was it", asked Harry, who had waited for her.

"At this rate, I'm not going to have a single free evening. Snape on Wednesday and Flitwick on Thursdays, come on I don't think I'd like to see McGonagall when she's angry"

They got there just in time and McGonagall's lesson started in much the same way as Flitwick's had. She went on a rant about the amount of effort they were going to have to put in, in order to pass their OWL's. She then started on a whole new spell to the class.

'Great', thought Allella, 'Now nobody's even going to be able to try to help me'. But once everyone had started on their snails, Professor McGonagall walked up to Allella and asked her to come to the front.

"Miss Lay, I understand that you are new to the school and to the idea of learning magic. I therefore, do not see the point of you continuing transfiguration lessons with this class, you will not be able to get up to the appropriate standard if we start you on spells too far out of your capabilities. Monday and Tuesday evenings you will come to my classroom after dinner and we will start you off on the easier spells. In these lessons, I will also give you a separate aim from the rest of the class. I have written you out a list of spells, you will continue through the list once you have managed to successfully complete the spell. I am afraid that we do not have the luxury to go over spells again so you will have to practice in your own time. Here is the list. Please bring it along to our evening sessions, starting today. Good Luck."

Allella looked at the list in horror, each spell was accompanied by the incantation, its uses and a moving diagram of the wand movement required. She started on the first one on the list, turning a match into a needle, after finding the match in the box of, well things, which McGonagall had given her.

By the end of the lesson, Hermione had managed to vanish her snail; nobody else had made any difference to theirs. Allella had still made no difference to her match either. McGonagall had told them all to practice the spell overnight and with a particularly meaningful look at Allella she told them they could leave.

They all walked down to the great hall. Ron attempted to cheer Allella up, telling her how they took weeks to turn a match into a needle, but all it seemed to do was make her realise how far behind she really was and how little sleep she expected to be getting this year. They ate quickly and then rushed up to the library to see what they could find out about their homework for Snape.

Then, before they knew it, it was time for next lesson. Care of magical creatures. As they were walking down, they heard a sound of laughter behind them. Malfoy and his gang of buffoons were following them down. There were a pile of twigs on the table in front of Professor Grubbly-Plank.

"I know what they are", whispered Allella in surprise.

They suddenly jumped up into the air and formed a number of small figures. They looked like pixies or fairies made of wood. When Professor Grubbly-Plank asked the class what they thought the creatures were, Harry looked at Allella in expectation but in the end only Hermione's hand shot up in the air:

"They're Bowtruckles, tree guardians from wand trees," she answered.

"Why didn't you say something" asked Harry.

"I didn't know what they were called; I just lived near some for a while, they take some getting used to but when you get on the right side of them, they become pretty good guardians and not just of the trees."

"Does anybody know what they eat?" asked the teacher.

"Woodlice" answered Hermione quickly.

"But they prefer Fairy eggs really, they just can't get to them very often" added Allella quietly.

"Correct both of you ten points to Gryffindor."

Allella paired up with Hermione and Harry with Ron. She held the bowtruckle still and whispered a few words to it before holding a few woodlice on her palm so it could eat straight from her hand. When it had finished eating, it stood up straight and looked straight at them so they could draw it properly. Harry and Ron seemed to be having a little less luck. Harry had a big cut on his hand from where the bowtruckle had scratched him and was bleeding everywhere.

When the class was over, Harry bandaged his hand up and walked off towards Herbology in a huff about something Draco had said.

"Ali, how did you manage to make it stay still like that?" Hermione whispered to Allella.

"I told you, I lived with them in the woods for a bit. You just have to know how to handle them and make sure they know you understand the hierarchy and have the proper respect for them. After that they will be completely faithful to you. They taught me a lot about the different creatures around me and how I should treat them."

She walked away quickly before Hermione could question her anymore. They caught up with Harry when they got to the greenhouses.

"Harry! Hey! Remember what you told me, he's not worth it. So stop worrying about Draco Malfoy, he's not important."

Before Harry could reply however, Luna had walked out of the greenhouses and straight up to Harry to confide in him her confidence that he was telling the truth about Voldemort's return. This was quickly followed by a similar confession by Ernie Macmillan, which made Harry feel slightly better than Luna's had. They walked off to the great hall in slightly higher spirits than before.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling**

That night was the first of Allella's extra lessons with Professor McGonagall and also Harry's first detention with Umbridge. They left the common room together both looking as depressed as each other. They headed in opposite direction once they got to the charms corridor and agreed to meet back in the common room.

Allella arrived at McGonagall's door five minutes early and decided to try the spell once more. She hadn't had any luck in the common room just before. So she put the match down on a chair she found along the corridor and gave it one last attempt. She waited and waited but...still nothing. She sighed in resignation and knocked on the door. Professor McGonagall invited her in and offered her a biscuit. She then asked her to place the match on the table and attempt the spell.

"It won't work Professor, I've tried but nothing makes any difference" answered Allella

"Miss Lay, I would like to study more closely your technique for spell casting in order to help you and correct the errors in it. How can I do this if you do not show me where you have got to so far?"

"Sorry Professor, I'll give it another shot"

She cast the spell and waited before looking expectantly up at McGonagall. McGonagall studied her for a moment before asking her to do the wand movement again without the incantation. She showed her three times and was then asked to say the words without the wand which she did another four times. McGonagall looked confused.

"Well I'm not really sure what you are doing wrong. Are you focusing on the outcome you want?"

"Yes Professor, I think so, I'm imagining a needle, will that be enough"

"It should be. Imagine it again but this time imagine the transformation, imagine the match thinning and lengthening, imagine the end turning pointy and the surface to get slippery and silver."

"Try once more, Miss Lay"

This time she pointed her wand at it and focused harder and more exactly on what she wanted. She put everything into it and chanted the spell. The match started to change shape. She had done it! Or so she thought, as soon as she stopped focusing, it shuddered and slipped back to its original form.

"Well Miss Lay, that is a start, I'm sure that with practice the effect will be permanent. Why don't we look at the next spell and you can practice both by our next lesson. We do need to move quickly you see."

"Yes Professor"

At the end of the session, Allella left the office feeling if possible even more downhearted than before. She had managed the second spell as well but just as before as soon as she relaxed, the spell was reversed. At one point she had managed to hold the spell in place for three minutes but she hadn't moved her wand or stopped staring at it the whole time. Eventually she had to relax and the transformation was lost. She was exhausted and only just managed to haul herself back to the common room where she collapsed into a chair next to Hermione. She didn't have the strength to answer any of Hermione's questions and instead grabbed her dream diary and proceeded to make up the most unlikely dreams she could think of, wondering what horrible misfortunes it would foretell in her future. Before long Hermione decided to go to bed. Harry still wasn't back and neither was Ron from wherever he had gone so Allella decided to wait up, she had promised Harry she would after all.

She managed to finish the bowtruckle drawing but couldn't be bothered with practicing her transfiguration, she wasn't in the mood and besides, she thought, what good would it do. None of her spells were permanent, maybe she wasn't a good enough witch. Maybe she didn't have enough magic.

Around that time, Ron walked through the portrait hole and spotted her sitting by the fire in an otherwise empty common room.

"Hey, what are you doing still up" he asked.

"Said I'd wait for Harry after his detention, what have you been doing"

"Oh, you know, just walking"

"Walking?"

"Yeah, anyway maybe you should just go to bed, I doubt Umbridge is going to let him go early and you'll be exhausted if you wait too long"

"It's alright I'll go up in a minute, I'll see you tomorrow, you must be tired from all that...walking?"

"Yeah I am, well night"

"Night Ron" she yawned as he walked up to his dormitory.

It was past midnight before Harry returned and he found her nearly asleep by the fire with a book on the floor beside her as though it had just fallen out of her lap.

"Ali, come on, you didn't have to wait you know, next time just go to bed, yeah?"

"What, oh Harry you're back, thank god I'm exhausted, what is she doing keeping you this late? How does she expect you to do any work at all?"

"I dunno but we better go to bed or the house elves will start coming to clean us away with the rest of the mess in here"


End file.
